Smith also suggested he will remain in office while he fights the charges.

“The people in my district elected me on March 20, 2012, even after the government charged me with wrongdoing,” he said. “And that’s because they believed in me.”

Smith, a Democrat from Chicago, was indicted on charges he extorted $7,000 to help a day care center get a state grant.

Smith’s attorney, Victor Henderson, attacked the government case, saying prosecutors did not fully disclose the criminal history of their informant when they won permission from a federal judge in March to secretly record Smith’s conversations.

Henderson said prosecutors first told the judge of only one prior arrest for a domestic assault.

Last month the government then informed the court of a 2004 drug conviction and a 1978 burglary conviction, both of which resulted in probation, he said. In addition, prosecutors said the informant had about 20 other arrests for charges ranging from burglary to weapons offenses, the lawyer said.

Henderson said he was highly skeptical that the government could not have known the extent of the criminal history in March, especially since the informant has cooperated with the government in the past.

“I don’t believe for a minute the government didn’t know who they were dealing with,” Henderson said. “That’s the foundation of the entire case. … I might have been born at night, but I wasn’t born last night.”

Henderson also criticized the government for setting up a sham daycare operation that Smith allegedly believed he was going to help earn state grant money in exchange for the payoff.